# PayPal > PayPal is a global financial-technology company that connects consumers and merchants through branded checkout, payment processing, digital wallets, peer-to-peer transfers, credit, rewards, cryptocurrency, risk tools and developer infrastructure. Its enduring advantage is a two-sided network with 439 million active accounts at the end of 2025; its central challenge is turning that reach into renewed growth while Apple Pay, Stripe, Adyen, Block and other specialists compete for individual layers of commerce. - **Founded:** 1998 - **Headquarters:** San Jose, United States - **Founders:** Peter Thiel (Confinity co-founder; former CEO), Max Levchin (Confinity co-founder; former CTO), Luke Nosek (Confinity co-founder; former vice president of marketing and strategy), Ken Howery (Confinity co-founder; former CFO), Yu Pan (Confinity co-founder and engineer), Russel Simmons (Confinity co-founder and engineer), Elon Musk (X.com co-founder; former CEO of the merged company) - **Team size:** Approximately 23,800 employees as of December 31, 2025 - **Products:** PayPal Checkout, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, PayPal Zettle - **Notable:** Popularized email-address-based internet payments after launching the PayPal service in 1999., Acquired by eBay for approximately $1.5 billion in 2002, then separated into an independent public company in 2015., Reached 439 million active consumer and merchant accounts at the end of 2025. ## Products & services - **PayPal Checkout** — Branded online checkout that lets consumers pay with PayPal balances, bank accounts, cards, Venmo, Pay Later and other eligible methods, with purchase and seller protections on qualifying transactions. - **Braintree** — Unbranded payment processing and gateway infrastructure for businesses and platforms, including card and alternative-payment acceptance through APIs and SDKs. - **Venmo** — U.S. peer-to-peer wallet expanding into debit-card spending, rewards and merchant checkout; PayPal acquired Braintree, Venmo's then-owner, in 2013. - **Xoom** — International money transfer and remittance service for sending funds, paying bills and reloading phones in supported markets. - **PayPal Zettle** — Point-of-sale hardware and software for small merchants, rooted in PayPal's 2018 acquisition of iZettle. - **PayPal Pay Later** — Buy-now-pay-later options, including short installment plans and longer monthly-payment products where available. - **PayPal Working Capital and Business Loan** — Merchant financing products whose eligibility and repayment structures draw on business performance and, for Working Capital, PayPal sales history. - **PayPal Savings and cards** — Consumer money-management products including savings supplied by Synchrony Bank, debit and credit cards, direct deposit and bill pay in supported markets. - **PayPal USD (PYUSD)** — A U.S.-dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Paxos that can be held, sent and used in supported PayPal and external-wallet experiences. - **Fastlane by PayPal** — A guest-checkout experience designed to recognize returning shoppers and reduce repeated entry of payment and shipping details. - **PayPal Ads** — Advertising and measurement products built around permissioned commerce signals and aggregated transaction insights across PayPal's network. - **PayPal World** — A planned interoperability platform connecting PayPal and Venmo with major payment systems and digital wallets across markets. ## Achievements - Popularized email-address-based internet payments after launching the PayPal service in 1999. - Acquired by eBay for approximately $1.5 billion in 2002, then separated into an independent public company in 2015. - Reached 439 million active consumer and merchant accounts at the end of 2025. - Processed $1.79 trillion of total payment volume and 25.4 billion payment transactions in 2025. - Generated $33.172 billion in net revenue and $5.233 billion in net income in 2025. - Built a developer ecosystem with public REST specifications, SDKs, JavaScript components and more than 160 repositories in its main GitHub organization. - Launched PYUSD in 2023, making PayPal one of the first large global payment companies to issue a branded U.S.-dollar stablecoin through a regulated issuer. - Operated in approximately 200 markets and generated 43% of 2025 net revenue from customers outside the United States. ## Latest updates - **2026-07** — PayPal reported second-quarter 2026 results and said it served consumers and businesses in approximately 200 markets. - **2026-07** — PayPal joined the European Payments Council, deepening its role in the region's payments standards and infrastructure. - **2026-06** — PayPal Ads highlighted campaigns using its transaction graph and introduced commerce-measurement products linked to verified purchases. - **2026-05** — The company announced a global goal to support 25 million people and small businesses by 2030 and partnered with Anthropic on free AI training for small firms. - **2026-04** — PayPal announced a strategic reorganization, named itself the NFL's official P2P payments partner and brought Pix acceptance to eligible small businesses in Brazil. - **2026-03** — PayPal expanded PYUSD availability to users across 70 markets and connected Venmo users with PayPal users for cross-network transfers. - **2026-02** — Enrique Lores became president and CEO effective March 1, succeeding interim leadership, while David W. Dorman was named independent board chair. - **2026-01** — PayPal announced plans to acquire Cymbio to advance agentic commerce and expanded its relationship with Deutsche Bank. ## Links - Website: https://www.paypal.com/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/paypal - Twitter/X: https://x.com/PayPal - GitHub: https://github.com/paypal - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@paypal - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paypal/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PayPalUSA/ --- Profile page: https://yespress.io/paypal Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io Last updated: 2026-08-16